Mo Twister, 2 others suspended for Charice hashtag

ABS-CBN News

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Three DJs of radio station Magic 89.9, including Mo Twister (Mohan Gumatay in real life), were suspended on Wednesday morning for starting the hashtag #charicepempengcosextape on the microblogging site Twitter.

Gumatay, along with DJs Tin Gamboa and Mia Bayuga, started the Twitter hashtag “as a joke” while their show “GoodTimes” was on air today.

The hashtag was the top local trending topic on Twitter this morning.

In a statement, Magic 89.9 said the station “does not condone what happened this morning, May 9, 2012 on GoodTimes.”

Magic 89.9 said "the DJs involved shall be suspended from boardwork for two weeks without pay as consequence of their actions.”

Charice, meantime, in her official Twitter account said she thought Gumatay was nice and that he was “unbelievable.”

“Too bad. Remember, you interviewed me? I thought you were nice. anyway, I should talk to you FACE TO FACE. :)” she said.

Charice added she hopes Gumatay has a “good lawyer,” hinting that she would file a case against the controversial radio jockey.

“It's my birthday tomorrow.. I just can't wait to go back to the Philippines,” she said.However, as of posting, the said tweets are no longer visible as the international singer removed them from her account.

Gumatay has apologized for the incident via a series of tweets, saying the "joke" was "dumb" and "cruel."

"I want to take the opportunity to apologize to Charice for a stupid and cruel joke on our show today. We attempted to be funny at her expense and, in the process, hurt her feelings. It’s with deep regret that we have come to learn that," Gumatay said.

Gumatay also appealed to his followers to no longer "contribute" to the spread of the said hashtag, and added that he and his co-hosts intend to apologize publicly on the same program that propagated the "joke" on Twitter.

"You have worked so very hard, not just for yourself and your family, but to put our country in a positive light, to promote immense Filipino talent, and you have done that successfully. We are proud of you and we are embarrassed because we failed to support that.

"I wish I could make it up to you and rest assured that we will exhaust every avenue to do so. We are sorry. You’ve been nothing but supportive of our show in the past. We failed to show failed to show our appreciation today @OfficialCharice."

Charice is one of the judges on "The X Factor Philippines," which will start airing soon on ABS-CBN.